Beyond the Patent: How AiPi Solutions Is Turning Tech & Patents into Business Outcomes Within Fairfax NOVA’s Tech Ecosystem

Pictured above: Eric Morehouse, founder of AiPi Solutions.

For technology companies, patents can be strategic assets that help attract investment, guide commercialization and drive growth. Fairfax County-based AiPi Solutions is taking that approach further, combining expertise in intellectual property, technology, business and finance with AI-powered tools to help companies and investors make smarter decisions. FCEDA spoke with AiPi founder, Eric Morehouse about the company’s approach, its LeifAI platform and why Fairfax NOVA’s intersection of technology, capital and government makes it an ideal place to grow. A veteran patent attorney and entrepreneur, Morehouse has more than 30 years of experience helping clients, including the U.S. Department of Defense, commercialize advanced technologies and intellectual property.

The AiPi Solutions team, pictured above from left to right: Sean Lewis, Project Manager; Markian Voronovych, Senior Engineer; Cole Morehouse, Project Manager; Eric Morehouse, Founder; Max Morehouse, Internal/External Finance; Berke Al, Data Engineer; and Stephen Tung, Patent Analyst.

FCEDA: What is AiPi’s mission and what are the problems you’re working to solve?

Morehouse: We help tech companies, especially smaller entities, handle their most important issues, e.g., raising funds, getting to revenue, and scaling revenue.  However, we go about it differently than other business consultancies, in that we dive heavily into the tech and patents.  We also have a network of investors and tech partners that look to us to bring them opportunities once those opportunities are vetted by our process.  We also de-risk investments in the private markets for investment entities of all sizes and types, e.g., high net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional investors.  Importantly, we’ve developed AI tools that allow us to get to goal very inexpensively.

Our mission is to unlock value for our clients and then leverage that value to enhance fundraising and revenue generation. An exemplary engagement often involves performing a deep dive into the technology, connecting the client with our network of investors, and creating a strategic patent portfolio tailored to enhance acquisition.

We find that many entities underutilize technology and patents as a valuation driver, and often fail to translate interesting technology into cash flow or investment capital. That’s where we step in – translating technology into hard patent assets, assisting clients in communicating their tech to potential investors, and building a pipeline between an idea and revenue.

Investment entities frequently attempt to address a similar problem, which has led to AiPi’s investor network.  We diligence investment entities’ pipelines, and connect our vetted clients with them.

FCEDA: AiPi was founded in 2015 with an approach that brings together patent law, technology, business and finance expertise. What inspired that model, and how has the company evolved over the past decade?

Morehouse: We were inspired through both my experience in management of a large patent boutique law firm and my work with hedge fund folks investing in tech companies.  I found that the typical work product provided by law firms on tech and patents merely provided minimal value, and so we created a process to use the data from tech and patents to get tech entities to goal on their most important issues.

In other words, the conventional tech/patent strategies employed by law firms for tech entities was never really tailored to the business strategy, and instead was deployed in isolation, thereby providing no or minimal value – the patent attorneys have no understanding of their clients’ business issues.  We therefore developed a system to bridge that gap.

FCEDA: LeifAI began as an internal tool supporting AiPi’s client work before becoming a domain-specific AI platform for patents and technology. What led you to build the technology, and how is it using AI to help companies make better decisions today?

Morehouse: We have a lot of expertise in building AI tools, and it was a natural choice for us to improve and reduce the costs of our services.  We slowly created the LeifAI platform over a period of years to support our services business, but made significant advances over the last 2 years to help our clients get to goal.  Our tech landscapes uniquely show how our clients’ tech fits into the commercial landscape to prove differentiators, highlight available features or implementing technologies occupying white spaces that would result in improved MVPs or next gen products/services, identify channel partners, and ultimately identify potential acquiring entities with indications of tech that those entities will find valuable.  We then are able to very inexpensively cover those white spaces with patents to result in a strategic patent portfolio that is used to support business goals.

With the onboarding of three dedicated AI engineers in the past 18 months, we have been able to supercharge our AI solutions.

FCEDA: Your clients range from startups and mature technology companies to investors and other financial stakeholders. How do the challenges around patents and technology strategy differ across those groups, and where are you seeing the greatest demand today?

Morehouse: For investors, we de-risk investments in private markets, in that our tools are critical at the due diligence phase.  Our services can then be used by the investors’ portfolio companies to increase their chances of success, e.g., achieving sufficient revenue.  For small entities and start-ups, our AI tools dramatically help fundraising efforts, and also provide the advantages articulated in #4 above.  For large tech entities, we are able to provide all of the above services, and also manage existing large patent portfolios to reduce costs and otherwise optimize the portfolios.

FCEDA: Why choose Fairfax County and the broader Northern Virginia technology ecosystem for your headquarters and client base?

Morehouse: Although we have a small Cambridge, UK office, the vast majority of our operations are in Fairfax County to help service the vast tech community here.  We work very closely with our clients, and it’s helpful to interact with them effectively by being located nearby.

Although we’re technology agnostic, many tech companies commercializing technologies in which we have deep expertise are either based or have an office in Fairfax County. Fairfax County is unique in its intersection between deep tech startups, mature tech companies, investment firms, and government connections.

FCEDA: With Fairfax County’s concentration of technology companies, federal agencies, government contractors, investors and entrepreneurs, how do you see AiPi and LeifAI contributing to the region’s innovation ecosystem?

Morehouse: Our unique services that combine expertise in tech, patents, finance, and business allow us to effective work with and service local technology companies, federal agencies, government contractors, investors and entrepreneurs.

Because we serve each of these markets, we have been able to develop a network to create synergistic connections between all of them. We are able to connect startups to government entities providing grants, connect mature companies to startups as acquisition targets, provide investment pipelines for investment firms, and everything in between.

FCEDA: How has the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority supported your company’s business needs and growth?

Morehouse: Although our relationship has just begun, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority is amazingly helpful in being a hub of local tech entities, and thereby introducing us to these entities so that they can benefit from our platform and services.

FCEDA: What’s next for AiPi Solutions and LeifAI- Are there particular markets, capabilities, partnerships or growth opportunities you’re especially focused on over the next few years?

Morehouse: We are continually improving our platform, such as to provide more features and obtain access to even more databases.  We are also expanding our expertise in different technologies and issues – for example, we recently dramatically enhanced our expertise in FDA issues.  The number of investment entities that trust our investment recommendations has also dramatically increased.

FCEDA: What advice would you give to a founder, technology company, or investor who hasn’t integrated patents into their business strategy, and at what stage should they start thinking seriously about IP?

Morehouse: From an investor’s perspective, it’s incredibly important to understand where the tech of a potential portfolio company fits into the landscape, taking into account both commercialization efforts and patents.  For a tech entity, whether the decision makers are raising funds, developing the technology, or initiating revenue, it’s critical to deeply understand the commercialization efforts and patent rights of others to effectively and efficiently get to goal.

This is especially true for startups, where typically the only asset of value is their technology. Properly drafted and prosecuted patents, above and beyond preventing the tech from being hijacked by competitors, allow startups to turn their technology into a hard, quantifiable asset – which investment entities are able to understand and value.